b. Investigate current usability evaluation methods being used in healthcare information technology as well as other areas

c. Conduct a workshop of acknowledged experts in HIT usability and have them analyze the findings of steps 2a and 2b.

d. Using the recommendations of the experts in step 2c and the principles identified in steps 1a through 1e, create a well-defined usability evaluation process that includes a roadmap for implementation and indicates where policy decisions are required.

e. Evaluate a representative sample of HIT systems using the evaluation process developed in step 2d

f. Develop a common format for HIT formative and summative usability test reporting

There is not yet a solicitation for funding, but I'm confident that funding opportunities will be announced soon.

Usability must be a key aspect of the national EHR program. Clinicians note that current products are hard to use/learn and this lack of usability can lead to errors. Senator Grassley's investigation of the current state of EHR products is in part related to usability issues.

My own experience is that usability is journey. Several years ago when the Joint Commission asked hospitals to implement medication reconciliation for all transitions of care, my development groups built innovative software that leveraged inpatient, outpatient, ED systems, and Surescripts/RxHub medication history to support the process. It took us a year to get the usability right by engaging stakeholders, studying the workflow, and iteratively revising the user interface. Only after extensive usability improvements did the application get deployed and adopted.

I welcome the NIST work and hope that we can develop objective usability metrics as part of the certification process. Software should be capable and usable to qualify for certification.